"Blacken the sky Can't stand to see the sun The truth of light Reveals the hatred that has won" – I Saw The End by Pallbearer

One would think that an album that sports only four songs doesn’t have a lot to offer, but with Gazing Light Eternity that assumption would be wrong. While this record does only pack four songs of blistering atmospheric black metal each song clocks in at over five minutes and two of them clock in at over ten minutes providing you with plenty of content. Chiral does a great job of mixing deafening black metal with more atmospheric moments that encompass you and draw you into the album even more. One minute you could be getting straight up shredding black metal and the next you become surrounded by atmospheres that are mystic and melancholic at times.

The two songs (Part I and Part III) that clock in at fourteen and thirteen minutes are the epics of this release. The longer run times may be daunting to some and you may think that you may lose focus when listening but that isn’t the case. The more you listen and the longer you listen for, these two songs in particular suck you in and keep you listening. Both songs are crafted very well and have a great balance of soul damning black metal and haunting atmospheres. It is very easy to get lost in these two songs in particular as they surround you in dense and bleak soundscapes that take your mind and make it wander into a thick fog coated forest.

Now, those two songs aren’t the only ones on the record of course but Parts II and IV act not as interludes but they act as more atmosphere to fuel the album. Chiral takes atmosphere seriously in the atmospheric black metal title. In each song you get enveloped in wondrous, fog filled bleak atmospheres from which you can’t find your way out of nor do you want to. The more you listen to Gazing Light Eternity the less you want to press pause or stop listening all together. Each song is unique in its own way and each song keeps you listening for different reasons.

Gazing Light Eternity gives you plenty of content and plenty of variation so that you don’t hear the same things over and over again. All four songs are crafted very well and supply you with razor sharp riffs, solid drumming, dissonant screams and as mentioned many times above, enough atmosphere to choke a horse. Not only is the musicianship on point but the raw and production provides you with a great sound that will ultimately get stuck in your head the more that you listen.

If you are looking for a black metal album that is just solid all the way around you really can’t go wrong with Gazing Light Eternity. This release has just about everything in it that you could want out of an atmospheric black metal album. It has scorching traditional black metal, atmosphere, great musicianship and production and all of that combined makes for a great listen.